Apple sued over A7 SoC design by US university

Thanks to America’s broken patent system which stifles growth and innovation while at the same time creating countless patent trolls, many intellectual property disputes nowadays involve outlandish claims made by trolls who scoop up patents in bulk.

However, every once in a while a legitimate organisation files suit to protect its interests and in this case it appears that the University of Wisconsin might have a case against Apple. The university insists Apple’s chip infringes on patented technology developed by University of Wisconsin scientists.

The suit was filed by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and it claims that Apple’s 64-bit chip violates patent 5,781,752, which describes a “table-based data speculation circuit for parallel processing”. The patent was filed in 1996.

WARF claims Apple employed the patented technology to get more efficiency and performance out of the chip. It is now seeking legal protection and compensation. Furthermore WARF states that Apple had clear knowledge of its patent.

“Since the issuance of the '752 patent, Apple has filed one or more patent applications that cite the '752 patent as relevant prior art,” WARF said in the complaint.

WARF maintains that Apple has been wilfully and intentionally disregarding its rights in the ‘752 patent, which may prompt the courts to triple the damages should Apple be found of patent infringement.